Archives for March 2015

There are a handful of people who choose their dream profession in college, find a job in that field after graduation, and live happy, fulfilled lives. The rest of us broadly fall into two camps: people who have no idea what they want to do and people who know what they want to do but have no idea how to get there. Coco Smith ‘11 fell into the second category.

Time and time again Smith tried to rationalize her way into pursuing a “normal career.” She came from a family where law school, medical school, or business school were the expected post-college steps. Becoming a fashion designer was too hard, not stable enough, and too competitive – especially for someone without a degree in design. She tried marketing, PR, and advertising – but none of them felt right. Finally, with no job and no prospects, Smith decided to give her true passion a chance. She got an internship with a designer in New York and has not looked back. Three years removed from graduation, Smith continues to work full-time for the same designer she interned with but has also launched her own line, called Rum + Coke. With no formal training, she has built a name for herself relying on creativity, intuition, and hard work. Far from a glamorous tale of instant fame and fortune, Smith’s story illustrates the challenges and promise of pursuing a less traditional career.

I’ve always loved clothes – loved putting stuff together. But at Williams, there’s no major for fashion. I went in thinking I was going to be a theater major because junior year you took a costume design class. When I got to sophomore year, they cut the costume class.

I went to career services junior year and told them that I was into fashion, but they just showed me marketing jobs for Pepsi and Coke. I tried to do that because it was still creative and offered some security, but it wasn’t a good fit.

I did a photo shoot one winter study. I called all my friends and told them to bring their craziest clothes. I styled everybody and teased their hair out. It was so fun, and I realized, ‘this is what I want to do. I don’t know why I’m fighting it.’

But after graduation, I realized that I needed an actual job and doing random photo shoots can’t pay bills. So I did an advertising internship, and the CEO took me to lunch and told me, ‘this isn’t for you.’ Then I did a PR internship and the owner of that company said the same thing.

My college roommate told me that a designer was looking for an intern so I started interning as an errand girl, and that whole world blew my mind. I said, ‘this is what I want to do. Let me stop acting like I need to be in this corporate world when I don’t fit in that world.’

My senior year, there was a homophobic incident in Mission. I was on the swimming team for my first three years at Williams and that had taken up a lot of my life. I was also the chair of the board at the Women’s Center, but swimming was taking a lot of time out of my schedule. I loved the swim team and loved the support network, but ultimately I felt like I was missing something and not contributing enough to the Williams community in a meaningful way because I couldn’t spend time doing activism.

After the homophobic incident occurred, I was walking across campus from the gym, and I ran into Justin Adkins who was the queer life coordinator. He looked at me and said, ‘they need you. I don’t care what you’re doing, you need to go to Hardy because it’s about to blow up.’ I said, ‘I can’t, I have to go to swim practice.’ He said, ‘fuck swimming – this is much more important. Has anyone ever told you that swimming is optional?’

I realized at that point that no one had ever told me that swimming was optional – it was something I’d done my whole life.

I went to class. I left class. I went to my coach’s office and said, ‘thanks for a great three years, but I quit,’ and I walked out and never went back.

Sometimes you know you want to do something, but it takes a push for you to actually go out and do it.

By senior year of college, Tracey Vitchers ’10 had spent most of her life as a competitive swimmer. Her days revolved around the pool – morning swims before sunrise, lifting sessions in the afternoon, another workout before dinner. At Williams, Vitchers’ best friends and roommates were on the swim team and her social life revolved around team functions.

Over the course of her time at Williams, however, Vitchers’ discovered new passions. On a whim, she enrolled in Women’s Studies 101 and two years later became one of four Women’s and Gender Studies majors in her class. She became chair of the Women’s Center Board and started organizing and attending a variety of rallies. “I was constantly the person stirring the pot. It was all because I felt that Williams could be a better place and a safer community.”

To Vitchers, the move to activism was as unexpected as it was invigorating. She continued to participate on the swim team, but more out of a sense of obligation than enthusiasm. “As time wore on, I realized that I loved the swimming community, but that swimming was dictating a lot of other things in my life. It got to a point during senior year that every time I got in the pool, I was thinking about what else I could be doing that better matched my passion.”

Vitchers’ struggle between activism and athletics came to a head on a cold day during December of her senior year. A few days earlier, homophobic graffiti was found on a student’s door in Mission. While many students brushed the incident aside as an isolated act, a movement was growing to hold the perpetrators accountable and implement a series of institutional changes to help marginalized members of the campus community.

Walking across campus that day, Vitchers ran into one of her mentors – Justin Adkins, the Queer Life Coordinator. “He looked at me and said, ‘they need you. You need to go to Hardy House (where the students were organizing) because it’s about to blow up.’ I said, ‘I can’t, I have to go to swim practice.’ He said, ‘fuck swimming – this is much more important. Has anyone ever told you that swimming is optional?’”